A PSYCHIATRIC patient at Clatterbridge Hospital died after leaping from a first-floor balcony, Wirral Coroner's Court heard.

The court was told that Edward Harvey Cox, aged 20, of Storeton Close, Birkenhead, died of traumatic head and chest injuries at Arrowe Park Hospital on March 29 last year. He had jumped from the balcony on March 24.

The day before the incident he had run from the grounds of the hospital without permission and left in a taxi. Later that day he was treated at Arrowe Park for injuries which he said he sustained on the Woodchurch estate.

His adoptive father, William Cox, then collected him from Arrowe Park and took him back to the psychiatric ward at Clatterbridge.

The next day Mr Cox visited his son at Clatterbridge and went with him to a kiosk outside the grounds to buy some chocolate.

Mr Cox told the court that as they walked back to the hospital Edward, sprinted away and climbed up an exterior fire escape onto a first-floor balcony before leaping head-first onto a concrete floor 20 feet below.

Ward Manager Iain Wells said: "The ward is not a secure unit and, although I was aware Mr Cox had displayed suicidal tendencies in the past, he had not displayed them recently."

The court also heard that Edward Cox was a schizophrenic who was being treated with a drug which may have caused him not to assess the danger correctly.

A coroner's jury delivered an open verdict.

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